I think for the next 365 days I am going to try to cook all of the recipes in Julia Child’s book “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” and blog about it. I bet you would all like to read about it on my blog!
Oh, wait…. someone already did that… and her name is Julie too! 🙂
Julie & Julia: The Movie
I watched the movie Julie & Julia last weekend. I thought it was a great movie showing two parallel stories of women (and their husbands) who love to eat and cook! I learned a lot about different types of foods, cooking techniques and french cooking and eating.
In the movie, they talk a lot about butter! And they show a lot of butter! In fact, after watching the movie, it made me want to eat a piece of buttered toast!
I think they may have exaggerated a little about how much butter is used, but it definitely got me thinking:
Is French Cooking Healthy?
Many people have heard about the Fench paradox, essentially pointing out that the French eat a lot of saturated fat (in meat and dairy foods), and still have lower rates of heart disease than Americans.
As Americans, we want to find the ONE CAUSE of something through a scientific test and then either:
1. avoid that something if it causes a bad outcome; or
2. overdose on that something if it causes a good outcome.
We have a very hard time with the fact that there could be multiple reasons for something and that the “dose” of certain things “makes the poison”. Therefore, maybe butter isn’t good or bad. It just depends on how much of it you’re having!
Here are some things that I observed about french cooking and eating in the movie.
- They were cooking with all fresh ingredients. Almost nothing came from a box, can or frozen.
- When they ate – they REALLY enjoyed the food. One… bite… at… a… time! They weren’t rushing around shoving all their food in their mouth in 5 minutes while talking on the phone, driving, typing an email or cleaning the house.
- Their portions were smaller.
So my answer is YES! French cooking (and eating) is definitely healthy.
Tips to Become More French In Your Cooking and Eating!
- Consume smaller portions. Starting NOW!
- Savor food to feel more satisfied with smaller amounts.
- Choose a smaller amount of high quality food rather than larger amounts of low quality food.
- DO NOT skip meals – eat 3 meals a day.
- Consume plenty of liquid such as water, herbal tea, and soup.
- Eat while sitting down.
- Do not multitask while eating.
- When choosing foods to cook and eat, focus on freshness, variety, balance, and pleasure!
Check out the movie if you haven’t seen it. I think you’ll like it!
– Julie
